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Tidskrift

Sammanfattning

Regular examination of oral health has been considered one of the fundamental structures of the Public Dental Service in Norway. The scientific evidence for the choice of recall intervals was questioned by Sheiham in 1977. Based on improved oral health among children, the policy view on length of recall intervals has changed from fixed length of intervals to flexible, need-based length of recall intervals. The purpose of the present study was to study the length of intervals between examinations of children, performed in The Public Dental Service in Norway. Birth cohorts 1989, 1992 and 2001 were selected in three counties (n=24 646). From the counties’ electronic databases (OPUS Dental) data on number of examinations, length of planned and recorded recall interval, and increment of caries (DS) during the intervals were extracted anonymously. A special data programme was used to access and extract the data from the database at the individual level. The results showed that the length of recall intervals varied among the children but not between age groups, the length of recall interval was longer than the planned interval. When length of recall interval was related to the increment of caries during the recall period, a short recall intervals was associated with a high caries increment among the 5 year olds. Among the 14 and 17 year olds the length of recall intervals varied but was not associated to a caries increment.

MeSH